daily java

Daily Java:

You have wearied the Lord with your words. “How have we wearied him?” you ask. You have wearied him by saying that all who do evil are good in the Lord’s sight, and he is pleased with them. You have wearied him by asking, “Where is the God of justice?” (Malachi 2:17)

I suppose that the worst thing a kid can do is whine. You hear children in the store that just whine for things. And you want to reach over and staple their mouths shut.

My children knew that whining got them no where, that it did no good. Yet still, on occasion – not real often, thank God – they would still whine about something.

People are the same way. Only we whine for larger things. Why is the world unfair? Why do they get to go on yearly cruises and we haven’t been on one. why does his church grow when mine doesn’t. I’m as good as they are.

After a while, the wining morphs into bitterness. Well, I guess it does no good for me to do good things. God doesn’t care. And we begin to equate goodness, righteousness and blessings with stuff. We get to thinking that the more stuff we have, the better off we are and that if we are good, God will give us stuff.

I hear a lot of TV preachers saying this.

But one only has to go the Bible to see that blessing by God is not necessarily synonymous with having a lot of stuff on earth. Some of the most holy people that ever came down the pike suffered without sometimes even basic necessities.

Why that is, I do not know. But it is true. Physical blessing does not equal spiritual blessing. The godly woman who has a terminal disease and suffers from it. The godly man who is unemployed and financially ruined.

No matter what the name it and claim it people say, God doesn’t care if you have a lot of stuff.

Hollywood actors are godless fools for the most part, yet they are beautiful and rich and admired by millions. Why that is, I don’t know. But it is true.

No real answer to this post. We have to remember that God blesses us when we serve him. It may not be financial, but we have a blessing that the world doesn’t have: we are children of God by faith in Christ Jesus and one day we will be with him in glory.

As Job said, one himself who was holy yet suffered greatly in his life for no real reason that he knew of: But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and he will stand upon the earth at last. (Job 19:25)

daily java

Daily Java:

The LORD works righteousness and justice for all the oppressed. (Psalm 103:6).

As has just about everybody else, I have been reading about the Occupy groups. Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Portland, etc. the idea is that there is a body of people unhappy with the distribution of wealth in this country and they want it changed. They want to go to a more socialist idea and an equal society.

Several times, I heard God invoked and this scripture (or part of it) used. God wants justice for the oppressed, someone yells through a bullhorn. If Jesus were here today, they proclaim, he would be here squatting on this land with us. He would be angry at you for not giving me money to do what I want..

I have often thought the co-opting of Jesus when you want him and ignoring him when you don’t to be the height of foolishness. It was Jesus himself that said, in Matthew 12:30: Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. He is not there to score political points or support political or social agendas. He is there to change men’s hearts.

God is a God who loves justice. And he loves the oppressed. But he also loves righteousness. He doesn’t just look to delivering oppressed; he looks to saving them.

Deliverance without salvation is useless in his eyes. He wants to occupy your heart, not just your city. He wants to deliver your heart, not just your body. He tells us that society will only change and people will only be free when our hearts belong to him. One cannot have true justice without righteousness.

The problem is, though, that those who are using him for their social agenda are afraid of him getting in their hearts. That is why they fight him and his power tooth and nail in every other part of life. They just want the part that sounds like what they want.

They don’t mind Jesus interfering with society as long as they can predict what he will do. It is when he becomes unpredictable and starts moving in their lives in ways they do not want that they get angry.

Real justice will come when righteousness comes. And not before. As Jesus said: Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. (Matthew 6)